By S. Siapha Mulbah
The statistical performance of Coach Mario Marinica as the senior national team’s coach has surpassed his predecessors after standing undefeated in four matches since he took over from Ansumane Keita earlier this year.
Mario Marinica has played three games away in both the 2026 World Cup qualifiers and the preliminary qualifiers of the 2025 African Cup of Nation winning two against Djibouti and Sao Tome and drawing with Namibia.
At home, the Romanian gaffer has played a single match in which he drew the second leg of the AFCON preliminary qualifier against Djibouti.
Lone Star being undefeated from the start of the year up to press time has scored four goals in all matches played under the supervision and watch of the recently appointed head coach Mario. The team conceded one goal and now has three goals outstanding.
In the past 20 years and more, it has been difficult for a coach with the Liberian National team to maintain the kind of record that Marinica has brought to the team. What appeared more impossible for Liberia under the immediate past two coaches with the team before Mario was getting a suitable away record.
Before Mario, Coach Ansumane Keita served as the senior men’s national coach for nearly a year, under during his era, the team only managed a single draw in all of the seven matches he participated in at all levels; the last African Cup of Nations qualifiers, the current 2026 world cup qualifiers and some international friendlies both home and away.
As a result, Coach Keita became a target of angry fans that yarned for victory till the Liberia Football Association decided to terminate the contract he had with the Lone Star in December 29, 2023.
Coach Keita’s predecessor, Peter James Butler, also faced similar challenge with the team.
In Butler’s own case, the country was banned from hosting its home matches for some time during all competitions and his time spent with the team again did not impress his employers to maintain him later that 2022.
The Lone Star is currently undergoing some recalibration with a different philosophy or play mechanism that many pundits are discussing the football corners while other coaches in the past preferred working and inviting huge presence of foreign based players during their games for the national team.
The system of play and the local league was categorized by Mario Marinica when taking over as a slow one.
He decided that his presence with the national team to get result needed to give more local based players the opportunity to play for the team and inviting few foreign based players that are actively playing for outside clubs than just being in the foreign land.
It is assumed that this tactics and preparation method will get the Lone Star to winning ways again after many years. On the other hand, it is important to note that Coach Mario opening games have not witnessed him played against some of the big countries that his predecessor played.
It is currently a huge anticipation to have him taking on some of the big names in across the continent either at the Upcoming Nations Cup qualifiers or next year against Tunisia in the World cup qualifiers.
